1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to methods and machinery for harvesting and packing low-growing row crops.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For the harvesting and packing of low-growing row crops many devices have been set forward generally involving complicated and expensive machinery such as power-driven conveyor belts and other mechanically-driven elements. The continuous work in this field indicates there is need for a device which can transverse a large number of crop rows, serve to bring the harvested produce to a central packing area, provide ample packing materials in the form of boxes, and provide for the sealing and subsequent off-loading of containers fully packed with harvested produce.
Jackson U.S Pat. No. 2,321,387, Morine U.S. Pat. No. 2,584,361 and Jones et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,782,943 all provide for conveyor wings extending over a plurality of rows to be harvested. These conveyor wings however are mechanically driven and therefore require an elaboration of machinery, resulting in high purchase and maintenance costs as well as potential machine malfunctions. Even more complicated are U.S. Patents to Csimma U.S. Pat. No. 3,340,935, Button U.S. Pat. No. 3,390,768, Bettencourt et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,561, Friedel et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,099, and Turold et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,477. These disclosed devices are intended specifically for harvesting, separating and sorting tomatoes and other vine crops, developing conveyor systems to avoid bruising the fruit. While this complexity may be in order for the art of tomato harvesting, it is excessive in many other types of harvesting. None of these patents adequately address the problem of packing the harvested produce. Although less complex, the devices disclosed in U.S. Patents to Chong U.S. Pat. No. 2,169,521, Jelderks U.S. Pat. No. 2,395,124, Maag U.S. Pat. No. 3,292,806, and Hood et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,913 do not provide means for traversing a significant number of rows of low-growing crops, all involve conveyor systems, and provide no packaging means. Jarrett U.S. Pat. No. 3,503,196 has all of the above problems, does make casual reference to packaging, but does not elaborate on how that is to be accomplished. Davis U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,026 and Smith U.S. Pat. No. 3,981,127 do not address the problem of harvesting low-growing crops, nor do they address the problem of packaging harvested produce. Jackson U.S. Pat. No. 2,321,387 and Puch, Sr. et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,842 do make reference to packaging harvested produce, but the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,321,387 must be loaded with empty boxes first dumped on the field to be harvested, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,842 complicates packing by requiring that the produce be emptied from a loading box into a packing box, and does not provide for access to or construction of the empty packing boxes.
Applicant is aware of no harvesting/packing system or device which provides for manual loading of hand-picked produce directly onto a packing table or onto an inclined plane from which suitable harvested produce may roll onto a central packing area which provides for an assembly station of empty boxes to be packed with harvested produce or which provides for a simple, non-mechanized means of providing the moveable packing station with the assembled, empty boxes. No device has heretofore appeared which provides for the efficient harvesting and packaging of low-growing row crops such as melons, cauliflowers, lettuce, cabbage, and the like which is capable of rolling down an inclined plane.